Public safety and biometric software developer ID Networks has provided North Carolina’s Eden Police Department with its mobile fingerprint identification solution, Finger-ID, that allows officers to securely identify individuals in the field.

According to a report by Rockingham Now the Finger-ID device is a single-finger scanner that connects to the laptop in a police car via Bluetooth. The device requires two fingerprints before it sends the data to a server at the Rockingham County 911 Center and on to the state.

“The police come into contact on a daily basis with people that have no identification and lie about their name and the police have nothing they can do about it,” commented Derek Tapper, Biometrics Product Manager for ID Networks. “They can’t just arrest everybody, so this is a tool that provides them, under the right circumstances, [a way] to identify people in the field.”

“Technology is changing every day and the more technology that we can have to keep our community safe, we are certainly interested in,” said Eden Deputy Police Chief Greg Light. “Technology and law enforcement are going to have to run hand-in-hand and we are trying to stay ahead of that curve.”

The report said that there is a policy being drafted to cover all legal concerns.